January 31, 2007

The Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd) recently unveiled a new web site that is intended to serve as an anchor for delivering technical assistance to teachers, state and local administrators, professional development and technology coordinators, and parents. Here, educators can access a comprehensive array of free online tools--including the interactive EdTech Locator, a self-assessment tool that helps users evaluate where they stand in the tech-integration continuum and guides them through the various stages of technology integration; and Tech Matrices, which allow users to search for products and tools to support reading and math instruction for students with special needs. The site is organized into three core focus areas: The Learn Center helps users select resources and tools for implementing technology to support the needs of all students; the Action Center provides tools to plan an ed-tech initiative and conduct professional development activities; and the Research Center houses CITEd's syntheses of research practices grounded in core content areas, for educators seeking ways to use technology effectively in their instruction.

Co-editors: Ray Misson (Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne) and Dennis Sumara (University of British Columbia)

Rationale: Many of the current debates around English/literacy tend to focus on the tension between the functional and the socio-critical elements in the subject’s construction. Little attention is paid to English as one of the creative arts (except, at times, in the narrow terms of what kinds of texts should be dealt with in English/literacy classrooms), and yet creativity is fundamental to the subject. As well as functional and critical capacities, a central aim of English/literacy is to develop creative capacities.

The lack of attention to creativity is particularly surprising when talk about creativity is everywhere in other fields. Creativity is now considered one of the significant generic skills education is concerned to foster; creativity is seen as a basic currency of a flexible responsive economy in the global marketplace. Given this emphasis, a certain degree of reclamation of the term is necessary, defining creativity in ways that are particularly productive in English/literacy classrooms. Such a task does not involve a return to earlier versions of the subject, nor will it be in conflict with the functional or critical elements.

The range of articles in this special issue address this task of reclamation, from a variety of perspectives: poets, poet-educators, teacher-educators, researchers and teachers. There are three major themes running through this collection of articles: the first is about creativity as problem-solving, the second is about creativity as making connections, the third is about creativity as intuitive and non-rational. The three things shade into each other – the problems are solved by making connections that are frequently intuitive – and most of the articles at some point touch on all three elements, although they may be concentrating on one or the other.

When Alan Marcus was a high school social studies teacher, he noticed that during discussions students would relate various topics to movies they had seen.

“They'd quote from films and talk about the themes,” says Marcus, an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction who specializes in social studies education.

“I saw what a powerful influence they were on how students thought about the past.”

That sparked Marcus' interest in researching how students were making sense of the past through film.

He did his dissertation at Stanford University and conducted a year-long study on the subject in two U.S. history classes in Connecticut high schools.

Now he has edited a new book, Celluloid Blackboard: Teaching History With Film.

“Students are consuming an enormous number of Hollywood feature films outside the classroom,” he says

. “Many of them are about specific historical events, or are strongly based in the past. For example, the research shows that 78 percent of students had seen Forrest Gump; 67 percent had seen Pearl Harbor; 67 percent had seen Apollo 13, and 55 percent had seen The Patriot.

“Teachers need to understand that students are coming into the classroom with a lot of information about the past from these films, so it makes sense for them to think about that when teaching social studies and history,” Marcus says.

“Films have powerful narratives, and are potentially interesting ways for students to develop historical empathy with peopl

January 25, 2007

Pressed for time and need information to enhance lessons for your students? Looking to connect with teachers to share ideas? Teachade is the first website built on the latest networking software and designed specifically for teachers. It combines the ability to join -- or start -- discussion groups with a powerful, searchable database of resources that others have posted. You can keep what you like in personal favorites files and update your personal or group calendar. Teachade is free for teachers. We invite you to join the community.